Container positioning, supporting and stapling jig



A ril 13, 1965 R. K. ABERNETHY 3,178,168

CONTAINER POSITIONING, SUPPORTING AND STAPLING JIG lllllll Ill .lllllllllll lllllllllllllllll FIGJ.

IIIIIII Filed May 11, 1961 ATTORNEYS INVENTORY Hui-Robert K.Aberne1hy VIZ A 20 BY I I United States Patent 3,178,168 CONTAINER POSITIONING, SUPPORTING AND STAPLING JIG Robert K. Abernethy, 400 Wollaston Ave, Newark, Del.

' Filed May 11, 1961, Ser. No. 109,428

5 Claims. (Cl. 269296) This invention relates to a special purpose jig which is expressly constructed and effectively adapted to temporarily support and hold an empty cradboard box or an equivalent container in an elevated readily accessible inverted position while stapling the usual folded bottom flaps of the container with a clinch-type, or boxer, stapler.

Persons familiar with the art to which the invention relates are aware that unfolding and setting up folded container blanks and stapling the folded-in bottom flaps in overlapping fashion presents a time and labor consuming problem. Inasmuch as such containers are of many and varied sizes and shapes, the present practice necessitates the use of a plurality of individual container holding forms, one for each size container. This practice and procedure involves planning, sorting out of groups of containers of the same depth, and selecting and using a prescribed form suitable for each group. Alternatively, it is the present practice to utilize a relatively expensive single post stitching or stapling machine. It follows that an objective in the instant matter is to aptly and satisfactorily cope with and solve the above generally stated problem.

To the end desired, a single multi-purpose jig having facilities for accommodating, supporting and holding containers of varying depths and cross-sectional dimensions is herein provided. Accordingly, instead of having to stop and resort to the use of a multiplicity of container stapling forms or holders, a single simply constructed jig having self-contained adaptable features which adequately fulfill the users needs and serve the necessary purposes is provided.

Briefly summarized, in the instant invention, a racklike stand is preferably employed as the empty container placement, supporting and positioning jig. This stand is characterized by a base member, which is preferably, but not necessarily portable and may be positioned atop a work bench, or an equivalent stationary support surface. Novel means are provided on the top surface of the base to support the inverted container in a readily accessible manner so that the overlapping bottom flaps are accessible for stapling. To this end, dowels or equivalent upstanding support elements are utilized, and these dowels are distributively arranged, and are attached to and rise perpendicularly from the base having their upper ends terminating in a common plane. With this adaptation and carefully planned arrangement, the upper portions of a selected group of dowels telescope into the receptacle portion of the container, with the result that the container bottom rests atop the selected group of dowels with the lowermost extremities the depending walls of the container in a plane elevated, in most instances, well above the plane of the base.

More specifically, the dowels or support elements are orderly positioned in rows and in spaced apart parallelism, with a view toward providing suitable clearance spaces between adjacent dowels, whereby the depending container walls may be unobstructively accommodated in many available spaces. Thus, by providing a multiplicity of selectively usable coordinating support members, the required range of utility is attained. Consequently, a highly practical, desirable and versatile time and labor saving jig is provided.

A further improvement resides in providing two or more groups of spaced upright dowels, the dowels of one group being fixed to the base and being of equal height, and

the dowels of the other group being shorter or taller, as desired and having their lower ends removable from the base, whereby the area of the container balancing and supporting surface may be increased or decreased and thus varied in order to handle cartons and containers that may not be amply accommodated by the dowels of the first named group.

Also, it is within the purview of the concept of this invention to provide an upstanding rigidifying rim about the perimeter of the base, the rim thus transforming the base into a tray capable of trapping and collecting loose cardboard fragments and other debris that may gravitate into the tray.

The gist of the concept of the prevent invention may be said to be predicated on the premise that instead of having a continuous or interrupted elevated suspending surface or anvil afforded in a conventional form or jig, coordinated individual spaced support members of minimal cross-section defining a wide range support surface and a multiplicity of intervening spaces for the descending walls of containers of either small, medium or large size or shape are provided as an improvement thereon.

It is thought that the details of an embodiment of the invention and other novel features and advantages thereof will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a container forming jig embodying the present invention, with portions of a container positioned thereon, as well as the base member, being broken away from purposes of illustration;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary detail view, on an enlarged scale, showing the manner of fixedly securing the dowels or upright members to the base by means of wood screws.

As shown in FIG. 1, the container forming jig embodying this invention is generally indicated by the reference numeral 10. In this embodiment, the jig is illustrated as being made of wood, although it is within the purview of the invention to construct it of other suitable materials, such as commercial plastics, or a light weight metal, such as aluminum.

The jig 10 comprises a base member 12, depicted in the drawings as being of generally L-shaped form in plan and being portable. However, the concept of this invention includes any suitable support means provided with a plurality of longitudinally and transversely spaced recesses 14 each adapted to receive and support upright members or dowels, such as the dowels 16 and 18.

It will be noted that the dowels 16 are of uniform height, each terminating at their respective upper ends in a common plane, and that the dowels 18 are likewise of uniform height each terminating in a common plane at their respective upper ends. While the dowels 18 are illustrated in FIG. 1 as being of a greater height than the dowels 16, it is of course within the purview of the invention to make this particular group of dowels, or any se lected plurality of dowels of this group of a lesser height. In this latter regard, it will be noted that provision has been made for removably inserting dowels 18 in recesses 14, as shown in FIG. 1. On the other hand, it is preferred to fixedly secure the dowels 16 to the base member 12 by suitable fastening means, such as flat-headed wood screws 20.

For the purpose of adapting the base member 12 to serve as a receptacle or tray, as well as support means for the dowels, permitting the tray to trap loose particles that may collect on the base during the box stapling operation to be described hereinafter, the base member is provided on its top surface with an upstanding peripheral flange or guard rail 22. This flange 22 also tends to serve as a brace for the adjacent upright members 16 and 18 and to lend the base member 12 greater stability by reason of its additional weight.

It will be noted that the spaced dowels of each group are arranged on the base in substantially straight rows, transversely and longitudinally, and that they are spaced apart sufficiently toreceive and hold .the descending walls of boxes of varying shapes and dimensions temporarily placed in inverted position on aselecte'd plurality of upright members whereby the upright members may telescope into the receptacle portion of the box so that the box is properly balanced for stapling. Inasmuch as the respective groups of dowels are of dififering heights, the jig-of this invention is sufficiently versatile to accommodate several boxes simultaneously, or selectively, even though such boxes are of differing depths as-wellas crosssectional dimensions, such boxes 24 and 26 as depicted in FIG. 1. Thus there is provided a single or unitary. instrumentality for holding and balancing boxes of various dimensions.

In the stapling operation, a box such as box.24 is placed on a selected plurality of dowelstin an inverted position with the overlapping bottom flaps28 and 30 thereof, folded against each other and supported at a common level provided by the coplanar heads of the dowels. Further,

the spacing of the dowels follows an arrangement devised.

to provide clearance spaces to permit the overlapping flaps 28 and 30 to be stapled together by conventional U-shaped staples, such as staple. 32 driven between a pair of adjacent dowels by a conventional boxer stapler. that folds the legs of the staple inwardly toward each other after the-legs have penetrated the inner flaps '30.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the invention as herein before set forth may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, therefore, only such limitations should be imposed as are indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A box supporting and elevating jig for use in conjunction with a clinch-type stapler, said jig comprising horizontal base means, and support meansatop said base means, said support means embodying transverse and longitudinal rows of individual closely spaced support members attached to and rising from said base means, there being a first group of members all of equal height fixed on said base means, and a second group of support 3. The structure defined by claim 2, wherein said base means comprises a flat bottom panel L-shaped in plan.

4. The structure defined by claim 3, the marginal edge portions of said panel being encompassed by an upstanding flange transforming the panel into a tray.

5. For use in supporting and. positioning one ormore inverted unstapled containers during stapling with a clinchtype stapler of the bottom flaps thereof, a jigembodying a horizontal L-shaped based member and elongated spaced vertical container elevating, positioning and retaining members, each elongated member being of a height capable of supporting and elevating said containersand cooperating with each other selectively or simultaneously, a plurality of said elongated members terminating-at their upper ends on a common plane whereby to function in group relationship to elevatethe containerwalls above References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,367,721 2/21 Shepard 1 332 2,890,883 6/59 Brookhouser 269296 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,028,283 2/53 France.

FRANK SUSKO, Primary Examiner.

D. I. WILLIAMOWSKY, ROBERT C. RIORDON,

Examiners. 

